Player's Own Voice

Player's Own Voice podcast: Act 2 for Dylan Moscovitch

The Player's Own Voice podcast this week discusses the tricky business of transitioning from athletic to dramatic performance with figure skater Dylan Moscovitch.

Figure skater takes the ice out from under his performance career

Canadian figure skater Dylan Moscovitch, left, pictured with pairs partner Lubov Ilyushechkina at a Skate Canada summit in Toronto on Sept 1, 2017, ended a decade-long career that included six appearances at the world championships and a silver medal in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press)

Dylan Moscovitch enjoyed a long and storied career as a pairs figure skater, but he's in his early 30s now. Even though he's still a young man, he knew two years ago he was done with competition.

So Moscovitch did some reflecting: he had spent half a lifetime learning how to be an elite athlete. What could he do with those hard-won skills in act 2 of his life? Physical performance? Check. Ability to memorize, rehearse and sell gestures and moods? Check.  He was comfortable in front of audiences and clusters of judges. He figured it out pretty quickly — he had nailed most of the core skills for professional acting. 

But as he says to Anastasia Bucsis on the Player's Own Voice podcast this week, there was an unexpected wrinkle. Athletes are trained to perform with confidence, while actors need to perform with vulnerability. How do you learn that?

Reinventing yourself is what it's all about on this week's podcast.

Like the CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice essay series, POV podcast lets athletes speak to Canadians about issues from a personal perspective. To listen to Dylan Moscovitch and earlier guests this season, subscribe for free on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In or wherever you get your other podcasts.